Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to the revelations by the Guardian into aggressive tax avoidance recruitment agencies, said:

‘’This is yet another example of how some unscrupulous employment agencies are exploiting loopholes in the law in their pursuit of profit.

“Not only do these kind of tax avoidance schemes places workers employed by agencies involved in an unacceptably precarious position, not knowing what will happen to their jobs should the company be investigated, it denies the Exchequer of significant revenue.

“Tax avoidance and evasion cost the Exchequer billions of pounds every year, money that could be used to properly finance our public services which are in dire need of investment after six years of Conservative failure.

“This Government has failed to tackle tax avoidance head on and has slashed HMRC’s ability to do so, as evidenced in PCS’ report released today. Labour will shut down these aggressive schemes through our Tax Transparency and Enforcement Programme to get a fair deal for workers and for the Treasury’’